Hinges that are used for the hinged connection of a swivellable element to a wall have previously been described. They have proven to be of use in many cases in different technical embodiments and are also used with doors for objects such as houses, commercial properties, or also with escape doors.
Doors of this type increasingly have devices which improve safety or comfort and which are operated by means of electrical energy. These devices may comprise sensors, for example, glass break sensors, which transmit signals to a wall-side device, for example, an intruder alarm panel.
These devices are therefore usually connected for energy and/or signal transmission via flexible cables to an external energy source. These cable connections considerably impair the visual appearance and can become clamped between the swivellable element and the wall, which may lead to damage or even to destruction of the cables.
Bands having contactlessly operating energy and/or signal transmitters have previously been described in DE 39 15 812 A1 and DE 10 2004 017 341 A1. These are formed as concentrically arranged coils or as a cylindrical capacitor in DE 39 15 812 A1. In the case of DE 10 2004 017 341 A1, the contactlessly operating energy and/or signal transmitter comprises a first coil arranged in the frame hinge part and a second coil arranged in a swivellable-element hinge part. A hinge bolt passing through both coils magnetically couples the two coils, which are distanced from one another in the direction of the hinge axis.
The contactless energy transmission from a fixed frame into a swivellable element arranged pivotably on the frame is in principle possible with the devices described in the above-cited documents, however, tests have shown that the maximum transmittable powers are too low for many desirable fields of application since the power loss during the transmission is very high.
A generic device is described in WO 2011/067010 A2. In order to increase the transmittable power, the wall and swivellable-element-transmitter parts, which comprise induction coil arrangements, are mounted in the case of this device in the wall part or swivellable-element part so as to be displaceable in the direction of the hinge axis. Spring arrangements are provided both in the wall part and in the swivellable-element part, and the wall-transmitter part and swivellable-element-transmitter part can be pressed against one another by means of said spring arrangements. This measure ensures that the end faces, facing one another, of the two coils are always in direct contact with one another. This is of particular importance since, in particular with inductively acting energy and/or signal transmitters, the power loss rises sharply with an increase of the distance between the wall and swivellable-element-transmitter parts.
It has, however, been found that the mounting of a device of this type is significantly impaired, in particular if no hinge bolt defining the hinge axis is provided and the device serves merely to transmit electrical energy and/or electrical signals and not mechanical forces. The abutment of the wall and swivellable-element-transmitter parts against one another under the spring force additionally causes wear of the two sides of the swivellable-element and wall-transmitter parts sliding over one another during the opening and closing of the swivellable element.